The not-so-common artist
R. K. Laxman

Born Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman, 24 October 1921, in Mysuru, India, before independence, R.K. Laxman died on 26 January 2015 aged 93.
A great cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist, Laxman is best known for his creation The Common Man and for his daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India, which started in 1951.
Laxman started his career as a part-time cartoonist, working mostly for local newspapers and magazines. While a college student, he illustrated his elder brother R. K. Narayan's stories in The Hindu. His first fulltime job was as a political cartoonist for the The Free Press Journal in Mumbai. Later, he joined The Times of India, and became famous for the Common Man character.

Childhood
His father was a headmaster and Laxman was the youngest of six sons (he had a sister as well; an older brother is the famous novelist R. K. Narayan.
Laxman was engrossed by the illustrations in magazines such as The Strand, Punch, Bystander, Wide World and Tit-Bits, before he had even begun to read. Soon he was drawing on his own, on the floors, walls and doors of his house and doodling caricatures of his teachers at school. Praised by a teacher for his drawing of a peepal leaf, he began early on to think of himself as an artist in the making. “Since childhood I do not remember wanting to do anything else except draw,” R.K. Laxman says in his autobiography, The Tunnel of Time.
Another early influence on Laxman was the work of the world-renowned British cartoonist, Sir David Low (whose signature he misread as "cow" for a long time) that appeared now and then in The Hindu. Laxman notes in his autobiography, "I drew objects that caught my eye outside the window of my room – the dry twigs, leaves and lizard-like creatures crawling about, the servant chopping firewood and, of course, and number of crows in various postures on the rooftops of the buildings opposite." Crows were another favourite subject of his.
Laxman was the captain of his local "Rough and Tough and Jolly" cricket team and his antics inspired the stories "Dodu the Money Maker" and "The Regal Cricket Club" written by his brother, Narayan. Laxman's idyllic childhood was shaken for a while when his father suffered a paralytic stroke and died around a year later, but the elders at home bore most of the increased responsibility, while Laxman continued with his schooling.
After high school, Laxman applied to the J. J. School of Art, Bombay, hoping to concentrate on his lifelong interests of drawing and painting, but the dean of the school wrote to him that his drawings lacked "the kind of talent to qualify for enrolment in our institution as a student", and refused admission. He finally graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Mysore. In the meantime he continued his freelance artistic activities and contributed cartoons to Swarajya and an animated film based on the mythological character Narada.

Career
Laxman's earliest work was for newspapers and magazines including Swarajya and Blitz. While still at the Maharaja College of Mysore, he began to illustrate his elder brother R. K. Narayan's stories in The Hindu, and he drew political cartoons for the local newspapers and for the Swatantra. Laxman also drew cartoons for the Kannada humour magazine, Koravanji.
Laxman held a summer job at the Gemini Studios, Madras. His first full-time job was as a political cartoonist for the The Free Press Journal in Mumbai, where Bal Thackeray was his cartoonist colleague. Laxman later joined The Times of India, Bombay, beginning a career that spanned over fifty years. His "Common Man" character, featured in his pocket cartoons, is portrayed as a witness to the making of democracy.
Some of the cartoons out of the 1960s and 1970s would be alive and meaningful if reproduced today without a date. His devastating humour trashed politicians while looking at the pathetic plight of common persons who still do not have the basic necessities. His humour did not always make you laugh: it was often grim, ironic, and impaled politicians for their generally corrupt and exploitative ways.
Laxman drew many science-related cartoons that were published in the magazine called "Science Today." These were compiled into a book called "Science Smiles." Some of these cartoons have been printed in various issues of Jantar Mantar some years ago. Many also appeared in the Science journal called "Resonance", published by the Indian Academy of Sciences.
He was conferred with Padma Vibhushan in the year 2005. Besides, he was also honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1984. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism by CNN IBN TV18 January 29, 2008.
--Compiled from several sources